


Mr. Trickster

by acme146



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Episode: s11e08 Just My Imagination, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Rescues, Season 11 Spoilers, Speculation for the future, Temporary Character Death, Trickster Gabriel, Zannas are Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-03 10:18:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8708662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acme146/pseuds/acme146
Summary: The Zanna are dedicated to helping the children who call on them, but sometimes they need help themselves. When that happens, they can always call on Mr. Trickster.Until one day, he doesn't answer.Someone else does.





	1. The First Trick

**Author's Note:**

> The episode 'Just My Imagination' caught my attention and wouldn't let go. I thought the Zanna were awesome, but there were times when they could use a helping hand, and this story was born.  
> Just a quick note on the spelling: I know the traditional spelling of Zanna is Zână, but the show uses the first. If anyone has any problems with that, let me know and I will change it.  
> Warning: ahead there is non-graphic discussion of child abuse in several forms.

            _When the archangels were built, the first two were given power to shape, while the second two were given power to create. The oldest shaped a Heaven cold and orderly; the second tore into the designs of their Creator, perverted beings and laws down to their cores. The third, hoping to follow the first, created beings that would heal beyond any reason, whether the hurt one wanted it or not._

_The fourth wanted nothing to do with his role once the first two were finished, and not even the third was enough to make him stay. But the urge to create remained, and finally, in one last act of desperation to expunge the past, the fourth reached out and formed beings. His only wish was for these creatures to help, somewhere and somehow. But he gave them no mission beyond that. The fourth knew what the others had done, the pain they’d caused. He couldn’t risk making the same mistake._

_So the creatures found their own mission, and in time forgot who their creator was. That was alright—the fourth had no need for thanks or prayer (at least not from them). But no matter how hard you try to walk away from something you built, it will call to you in need._

_And the fourth answered that call._

* * *

 

1786, Pennsylvania

            Alanna kept it together until she’d kissed Abigail goodnight and sang her a lullaby. She was grateful that the girl had imagined her the size of a brownie, like the stories from back in the Old Country. It made it easier for her to fit in the cramped closet.

            Once she went outside, hoping to see the father coming back and be able to move Abby in time, she flung herself on the ground and burst into tears.

            Alanna was young for a zanna, one of the first born in this new land. Abigail was her first child, and she’d been so excited. Her mother was retired now, but she’d taught Alanna everything she knew about taking care of lost children, helping them to find their own strength, and finally how to say goodbye.

            Full of hope, Alanna had obeyed Abigail’s call, shaping herself small, and found herself face to face with a child cowering under a table, bruises covering her small face.

            Abigail was five. Her mother was dead, the baby that killed her lying sobbing in a filthy cot. Sometimes in the day Abigail would try to take care of the baby, rock her tiny brother and feed him from the little they had.

            At night, when the father came home, Abigail would try to hide the baby. Hide herself.

            Alanna wanted to fight the man so badly, but she couldn’t. It was the _rules_. Zanna didn’t fight. They couldn’t affect the real world enough that the child would become suspicious. So Alanna tried to distract Abigail, find her food in the woods and bandages for her arms, but the berries were often stepped on and the bandages ripped off in the father’s drunken rage.

            Alanna lifted her face to the sky. Unlike the humans, zanna knew that there were many gods, yet they belonged to none. Of course they were polite and gave thanks when it was due, but the gods treated the zanna like children themselves. Alanna had never minded. Now, though, she brought her hands together the way Abigail did.

            “Please,” she begged. “If anyone is listening, help me save these children. They need help; they’re just babies.”

            There was no answer; the stars were silent. Alanna bowed her head.

            “What’s the trouble, sweetheart?”

            Alanna spun around. A man—no, it was a god, he gave off power that felt like crackling lightning and smelled of spun sugar—stood not far from her. “What do you need?” he asked.

            Alanna immediately lowered herself to her knees, but the god just picked her up, holding her in his hands. He was only a little bit taller than her mother, with golden hair and eyes that sparkled in the starlight. “What do you need?” he repeated.

            “I need help,” Alanna whispered.

            “Tell me,” the god said firmly.

            So she told him everything.

            “Why can’t you run this monster off?” he asked when she was done.

            “I don’t have the power,” Alanna admitted. “Even if it wasn’t against our rules, I am not strong enough. I’m young, and Abigail is weak. She cannot imagine me powerful, because she doesn’t know what that feels like.”

            “No, and how could she?” The god murmured. He was still holding Alanna. “Tell you what—I’ll help the kids out, but you’ve got to promise to let me do it my way.”

            Alanna shivered. There was something dark in his voice, something that rang of vengeance…no. Of judgement. What if she was making a mistake?

            Then she heard the father’s horse, bearing its master back from the village tavern, and she knew that no mistake could be worse than doing nothing.

            “Don’t hurt the children,” she pleaded.

            The god smiled. “You have my word. Now take them and hide.” He put her gently down and cracked his knuckles. “This won’t be pretty.”

            Crouched in the bushes, Alanna perched on top of the sleeping baby. Abigail was curled up under the bush, also sleeping. Alanna listened, but there was only silence.

            Finally, the god came back, face expressionless. He took the baby from her with gentle hands, and the two of them walked back to the house. The god snapped his fingers, and the crib became clean and soft. Abigail’s closet bed changed too, big enough for a child of five to lie down. A doll was propped on the pillow.

            “Don’t worry, the people that are coming tomorrow will see this place for what it was,” the god said as Alanna tucked Abigail in. “These two deserve a soft bed tonight.”

            Alanna didn’t answer for a moment. “What will happen?”

            “Their mother has a sister out West,” the god answered. “They will take the children, raise them well. They’ve always wanted children of their own.”

            Alanna smiled. “Thank you so much.” She paused, heart sinking. “What may I offer you for payment?”

            The god’s smile flashed. “You kidding? This is kinda my gig, sweetheart. Happy to help.” He stood and walked to the door. “You know, there is one thing you could do for me.”

            “Name it,” Alanna answered instantly.

            “Tell the others about me. I won’t always be the solution, but I’ll help out if need be.” The god started to walk out.

            “Wait! Tell me your name.”

            The god turned, and for a minute Alanna swore she saw the shadows on the wall change, six large shapes appearing by the god’s shoulders. Then he winked, and they vanished.

            “Call me Trickster. That’s as good a name as any other.”

* * *

 

            True to the god’s word, the next day people took Abigail and her brother away. Alanna went with them, because Abigail was still scared of big people and trains and worried about the journey’s end. Alanna stayed until Abigail said Mommy and Daddy without fear and her brother was given the name Alexander, a real name for the first time. Then Alanna said goodbye, because Abigail was safe now.

            But she never forgot.

            And word spread among the zanna that there was a name you could call when your child couldn’t be soothed with words or protected with cheer. When the worst happened, you could call out for the god, and he would come. He always came, offered solutions when there were alternatives, and dealing out his own punishment when not.

            Mr. Trickster, they called him.

            Zanna were polite creatures.


	2. The Lady

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One day Mr. Trickster stops answering, but the zanna have not been abandoned.

2010, Ontario

            Eli paced the street nervously. He was frightened to call, worried that, like his friend, there would be no answer.

            The older zanna couldn’t understand it. Sure, they didn’t call on Mr. Trickster all that often, but he _always_ came. He’d promised all those years ago, and he’d kept his word.

            But in the last two months their prayers had gone unanswered.

            The word spread like wildfire, panicked zanna warning that something was wrong.

            Eli had never met the god, but his friend Umi had. And Umi, a seven-foot-tall bear, was terrified. “Something’s wrong,” he told Eli as he cradled his sobbing boy in his arms. “He always comes. He wouldn’t abandon us.”

            But Eli wasn’t so sure. Gods were capricious creatures, after all. Unlike the zanna, they heeded calls only for rewards of payment. Perhaps the god had gotten tired of pro bono work for children who didn’t truly believe in the zanna anyways.

            Eli stopped pacing and looked back at Michael’s house. The little boy grew more sickened by his own body every day, every day his father took him to his room for ‘father-son’ time. Eli couldn’t stop it. He had no choice.

            “Mr. Trickster?” he called. “Please, if you’re out there…we need you. The children need you.”

            The streetlight exploded.

            Eli turned, his antlers quivering (yes, Michael wanted a moose. Michael got a moose). The dim light made it hard to see, but he could just make out a tall dark lady in a white dress.

            “Hello?” he said nervously.

            “Are you a zanna?” The woman’s voice was powerful; Eli shrank back under her glowing eyes. Then he thought of Michael.

            “Y-yes. Who are you?”

            “My name is unimportant.” The woman raised her hand and the streetlight came back on. “What is your wish, zanna?”

            “I…my kid is being hurt by their father…he’s…” Eli’s mind whirled. “Wait, I prayed to Mr. Trickster.” Had he prayed the wrong way? Was this lady one of the gods who hated children?

            The woman’s eyes softened, and Eli was struck by the sadness in them. “He’s dead,” she whispered. “He died saving the world.”

            _No_.

            Eli swallowed the lump in his throat. Mr. Trickster couldn’t just be…gone. All those stories, all those kids rescued from the evils of the world…no.

            “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “Was he your friend?”

            The woman winced. “I would not use that word. We were…joined. Despite everything. Despite the lies, our…differences.”

            Eli bowed his head. The pain in the lady’s voice burned into him. “I’m sorry,” he said again. Like it helped at all.

            But the woman gave him a small smile. “Thank you. Now, what can I do?”

            “I beg your pardon?”

            “A few months before he died, he told me about you creatures. About what you do.” The woman’s eyes glowed. “I sympathize. I cherish children, and I am less…restrained than he about wreaking vengeance upon those that wrong them.”

            Eli took a step back. In the stories Mr. Trickster dealt with the harmful without causing them pain most of the time. Umi still laughed about the bullies who’d chased his Irene through the streets after school every day, only to be chased themselves by endless murders of crows.

            This lady, on the other hand…she meant something darker. Something more sure.

            “Did he ask you to help us?” Eli asked.

            “He did, in the event of his death.” Another flash of pain across his face. “I did not think it was so close.”

            Eli squared his shoulders as best he could. It was hard in this shape. “Then I ask you to protect Michael from his father.”

            The lady smiled. “Done.” She turned, then looked over her shoulder. “Go and get the boy first. Take him for a ride. He doesn’t need to hear this.”

            Eli scrambled to obey.

* * *

 

            And so a new era began for the zanna. The Lady came when you called, and she protected the children and the innocent, but her kindness was matched only by her brutality towards the guilty. Often the zanna who called upon her were frightened by her methods, but they could sense the same fierce love and protectiveness Mr. Trickster had once given, and they learned to love the Lady as they’d loved him.

            They still mourned the Trickster, and those who understood the significance of the Lady’s never changing dress knew that she mourned him as well.

            But there were always children to protect, and perhaps the best way to honour him was to continue his work.

            And if on occasion the zanna felt strangely, violently upset, as if they’d lost their parent, they didn’t understand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! We will conclude on Sunday.  
> Cheers,  
> Acme


	3. A New Trick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alanna sees the Lady wearing red.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there is a death in this chapter, I hope I made it gentle.

The Future, Idaho

            Alanna shifted in her nest. She was old now, older than most.

            Zanna lived long lives, but she was over two hundred, and she was looking forward to rest. The young ones would miss her, and she them, but it was her time soon. She could feel it.

            Her youngest descendant had come to visit her earlier that day to say goodbye. Sully was a good child; he’d made a few mistakes but his heart was in the right place, and he loved his children so well. He’d told her that he had to call in the Lady on his girl’s teacher, and he was scared.

            Alanna told him not to worry. Hadn’t she been the first to call on Mr. Trickster? And then, when Eli had come running with the tale of the Lady, hadn’t she spoken to the goddess herself? Seen the goodness in her?

            “Don’t fret, Sully,” she soothed him. “The Lady is not Mr. Trickster, but the Lady will never harm the children.”

            Sully had met Mr. Trickster once, when he’d asked about a boy of his, a boy who wanted to be his own person in a family of hunters. Mr. Trickster had sympathized, but advised letting the boy make his own choice. Sully had been disappointed, but he’d liked the god and spent hours listening to stories about him. He, like the other zanna who’d met the god, missed Mr. Trickster for himself.

            But the Lady was powerful, and the Lady comforted the frightened children and took away their memories, and the Lady always answered their calls.

            No, Alanna wasn’t worried. She just wished that Mr. Trickster was still around. She missed him.

            The wind whistled overhead, high and clear, and Alanna looked up. To her surprise, the Lady stared down at her. “Hello, Alanna.”

            “Hello Lady,” Alanna replied. Her voice was weaker these days, but she knew the Lady could hear. “It’s an honour to see you one last time.”

            The Lady drew back, surprised. “You can die? Gabriel, is that right?”

            Alanna was about to explain that yes, she could, but it was natural and she really wasn’t upset at all, but then someone else peered into the nest.

            Mr. Trickster, looking older but with the same sparkle in his golden eyes, smiled down at her. “Hello Alanna,” he said gently. “Yes, Kali, they can. But don’t worry. They have their own part of Heaven.”

            Alanna’s eyes brimmed with tears, and she reached up. She’d never stopped being tiny, and her hands could barely hold his fingertip. “You’re alright, Mr. Trickster,” she whispered.

            Mr. Trickster gently picked her up, cradling her in his hands. “I am,” he answered, still speaking softly. “I need to tell your Sully that he does a good job. His kiddo helped get me back.”

            Alanna smiled. “I’m so glad.” For the first time, she noticed that the Lady was no longer wearing a white dress. She wore a white shawl around her shoulders, but her dress was now a deep, pure red.

            “And you are happy, Lady…Lady Kali?” Alanna’s eyes grew round. Could it be…

            The Lady reached out and touched Alanna’s head gently. “I am, little one.”

            Alanna smiled, then sank to her knees, bewildered by her sudden exhaustion. “I think…I think it’s time for me to go,” she said. “I am glad that I saw you together.”

            Mr. Trickster’s eyes were bright with tears now. He laid Alanna down tenderly, tucking her under a soft blanket. “Go to your rest, Alanna. You have done your work, and you have earned your reward.”

            “So have you both,” Alanna answered. She closed her eyes and took a breath.

            She never took another.

*********************************

            As carefully as he’d once held his Father’s newborn son, Gabriel picked up Alanna’s body. He whispered a blessing, then lifted his hands, watching as the bright being of the zanna went up, up, up.

            Kali took his hand. “You made them well, Gabriel.”

            It still felt strange to hear her use his real name. “I didn’t mean to make them,” Gabriel answered. “I just wanted to make something that would help the weak, but I didn’t want to decide how. They did it all on their own.”

            “And they’ve helped thousands of the most vulnerable creatures on Earth,” Kali said. “And when they couldn’t do enough on their own, you answered their pleas.”

            “So did you, when the time came.”

            “I wish it hadn’t.”

            Gabriel squeezed her hand. “I couldn’t just leave them alone,” he answered. “They needed my help. That’s what creators should do.”

            “Even when you left, you made sure someone kept watch.” Kali looked up. They could just make out Alanna, finally entering Heaven’s pull. “It appears to run in your family.”

            “What?” Gabriel stared at her. “What do you—me? I didn’t—not really—”

            “You did,” Kali said, in a tone that meant no argument. “You’ve done well. Your father should be proud.”

            Gabriel looked away.

            “Are you ready to face him?”

            Gabriel took her other hand. “If you come with me. It’s about time you met him too.”

            Kali considered this. “I will not bow.”

            Gabriel laughed. “Älskling, I wouldn’t want you to.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end of this little tale! For those who don't know, in the Hindu tradition white is the colour of mourning. I meant to put that in the note for the last chapter and I forgot.  
> Cheers,  
> Acme

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!  
> Cheers,  
> Acme


End file.
